


In Which Ash Ketchum Ends Up In The Same Universe As Overwatch

by KHGiggle



Category: Overwatch (Video Game), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Additional characters will be added as they show up, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate universes abound, Aura Ash, Depression, I'll add new tags as they become relevant, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Past Brainwashing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Harm, Sporadic Updates, Sporadic chapter lengths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-06-14 10:24:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 18,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15386721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KHGiggle/pseuds/KHGiggle
Summary: Ash somehow ends up in the Overwatch universe.  Obviously, he wants to go home.  Too bad he keeps getting sidetracked.





	1. Ash gets into another weird situation

**Author's Note:**

> So, I got interested in Overwatch. I don't actually play it. I just like the lore, story, and characters. And I've been a fan of Pokemon since my age has been in the single digits. So one day I wondered what would happen if Ash ended up in that game. And after a little while, I realized I was starting to get a bit of a story.
> 
> Now, normally I will write a whole story before I start posting it, but that could take years since Overwatch is still relatively new with new stories being released fairly regularly. Plus, I'm trying to relax a bit more so I decided that for once I was gonna post story chapters before I knew how it was going to end. I am going to have as much fun with this as I can. There might be continuity errors. It might never be finished because I ran out of ideas. It might be bad. It might be good. I don't know what's going to happen. And I love it.
> 
> I don't own either of the series, so please don't sue me.

Ash had weird stuff happen to him. It was something he’d gotten used to over the course of his Pokemon journey. One day he and his friends travel for a day, stopping only for food and an occasional battle, the next they end up helping prevent a hostile takeover of a software company, the next they relax a bit, the next they travel some more, the next there’s a gym battle or a contest or performance, the next someone tries to blow up a building and they stumble on the plot..

It had been a bit frightening the first year. The second year was confusion as to why this sort of stuff kept happening to them. By the third year he’d gotten used to it and the most he felt was exasperation at the people who caused the problems.

This meant Ash and his Pokemon had skewed priorities. Ran into a mystical Pokemon? Is it trying to destroy anything? No? Then we can hang out! Find a rare treasure? Does it belong to someone? If yes, give it back. If no, decide if you can keep it or donate it to a museum. You’re involved in a prophecy? Is your name in it? Yes? Shoot. You’ve been taking care of a seemingly normal Pokemon that is actually a legendary that could cause massive amounts of destruction? You’re still friends, you just see if they need to leave at some point.

So, when Ash woke up in the middle of a jungle with no idea how he got there, his first thought was ‘I should make sure everyone’s here.’

A quick check showed Pikachu was unconscious next to him. Ash quickly opened the pokeballs with him.

“Hoo!”

“Bark!”

“Nyar!”

“Poi poi!”

Okay, everyone was here. Now, were any of his human friends around? Ash looked around. He didn’t see anyone, and his aura wasn’t picking up anything but more trees and some…elementless Pokemon? He wasn’t sure what to call them, but they lacked what even normal types had. It was a bit concerning. Anyway, it probably meant he was the only member of his class to end up…here. Wherever that was.

“Hey, do any of you remember what happened?” asked Ash.

Lycanroc looked at Torracat. Torracat looked at Dartrix. Dartrix looked at Pikachu. Pikachu looked at Poipole. Poipole was studying a vine with an excited look on his face.

Everyone but Poipole shrugged.

Ash looked himself over for a moment. He still had the Z-ring and Z crystals. “What the…”

The middle nail on his left hand was black. Ash pushed down on it. “Doesn’t hurt…What about you guys?”

“I’m fine.”

“Me too.”

“Same here.”

Ash blinked. He was pretty good at interpreting what his Pokemon meant in general, but that seemed a lot more detailed than normal. Well, it wasn’t like that was a bad thing. He shrugged it off. “Okay, time to find civilization!”


	2. Ash's problems

It took nearly a month to find civilization. They probably would’ve gotten out faster if Ash had had a map or something. He’s not sure he’d be able to use it very well, but still…

Ash sat on a bench in the small town he’d found himself in. The local language had just enough similarities to Espanza that he was able to communicate that he was lost, wanted to get to the nearest city, and would like some sort of dictionary to help him communicate.

Someone had scrounged up an English to Portuguese dictionary. Ash had been worried at first, but it turned out that English was the same as Albanian. So now Ash was teaching himself Portuguese while he went over what little he’d managed to figure out.

The biggest one was that Pokemon didn’t seem to exist in this…world? Ash couldn’t find any Pokemon anywhere, not even by using his aura. He only picked up the Pokemon in his current team. Ash had even tried looking up Pokemon and any related words in the dictionary, but there wasn’t anything. Ash was pretty sure that meant they were in a different world.

Actually, now that Ash thought about it being in another world was the biggest thing. Ash had to admit that considering the lack of Pokemon a bigger deal said a lot about his life.

Next thing: The black on his finger wasn’t going away. It was actually spreading up his finger. He tried asking about it, but everyone seemed to think it looked normal. His Pokemon didn’t see it either. So he was either hallucinating or he was the only one who could see it. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

Another thing: His aura abilities had suddenly gotten stronger. Contrary to popular belief, Ash actually put effort into learning how to use his aura abilities…and had been using them subconsciously for most of his life without realizing it. Ash could detect various things with it, and could sort of use it to speed up healing. Hadn’t figured out how to use it to do aura sphere stuff. Except suddenly he had a larger detection range, the healing was visibly noticeable, and he actually made an aura sphere! It blew up, but it was still an improvement.

Ash had no idea what had caused the sudden boost.

A really unexpected thing was that this world had robots. Not automated robots, but robots that could think, move around, and make a living on their own. They reminded him of Clembot, but more high tech looking. They insisted on being referred to omnics instead of robots. Ash didn’t know why, but if that’s what they wanted, that’s what he’d do.

And lastly…No one took pokedollars. He was effectively broke. Not a big a deal as it would be for most people though. He had various items for emergencies where he didn’t have any money on him, mainly pearls that he’d been finding on the beach lately.

Yes, he used his aura abilities to detect valuable items on occasion.

Anyway, he sold some pearls, so he had workable currency. If he needed to, he could probably barter or trade services.

But first he had to be able to communicate with the locals. Lucky he was so good with linguistics for some reason.

Plan for now: Figure out the local language so he can ask about the closest city and go there. Then find a library so he can figure out what they know about alternate dimensions. Then find the best expert in existence and ask for help. Until then, do his best to survive in a world that doesn’t have Pokemon, which meant keeping his Pokemon out of sight and in their pokeballs, except for Pikachu, who was staying in his backpack with occasional comments.

“Are you done yet?” asked Pikachu.

“Learning another language takes time!” defended Ash.

The townsfolk seemed to be aware he was keeping an animal in his backpack, but that was it.

“How’s the fruit?” asked Ash.

“Tasty!”

“Good, save some for the rest of us,” said Ash, that time trying to say it in Portuguese. “How do I sound?”

“Formal and sort of mechanical, but not in a monotone way.”

“Hm…” Ash closed the dictionary. “I need some more work, but I need a break more.” He moved out of sight by quickly jump-climbing up a building.

He was also stronger and more agile. He figured it was the aura enhancement.

Ash let out everyone as soon as he’d taken out the food. “Itadakimasu!”

A pulse went up Ash’s arm. He looked down. Was it just him or had the black on his finger just creeped up again?

Suddenly feeling very nervous, he switched his Z-ring to his right wrist. He thought he felt annoyance that wasn’t his.

He was starting to get worried.


	3. Meet Ash's New Traveling Companion

“Finally!” Ash practically jumped off the bus. He looked around for a moment and decided that Rio de Janeiro was a typical supersized metropolitan city. So he was going to need to ask for help if he didn’t want to get lost. “Excuse me. Do you know where the nearest library is?” Ash asked the nearest person.

“Well, that would be the one on Florencio Street. Just head straight ‘til you reach the fish stall. Turn right…” The instructions went on for a couple of minutes.

Ash lost track and had to ask for more directions a couple more times, but he did eventually find the library. It was a bit on the small side, but it had computers with internet. All Ash had to do was look up professors who studied dimensions.

Even that was a lot more complicated than Ash had expected. There wasn’t a specific dimensional studies subject. It was a part of physics in general. Ash wasn’t even going to consider pretending he understood any of the stuff he was finding. It was all a bunch of math that was way above his level and complicated scientific theories that made Ash space out.

Why did things keep getting more and more complicated? It was going to be…at least a few days before he could put together a list of professors that might be able to help him. Ash wasn’t sure he had that sort of time.

“Why is this world so complicated?” complained Ash.

“Because humans have to complicate everything,” said Pikachu matter-of-factly.

That made perfect sense to Ash. He’d found that a lot of people blew things way out of proportion. Even he did it, usually while thinking about League competitions. He tried not to though. It seemed to annoy people when he got too focused on that sort of thing.

Ash eventually ended up writing down a couple of professors who might be able to help him. Now where to eat and spend the night? He knew he could occasionally afford to rent a motel/hotel room for a night, but it was probably better to conserve his money. So, better find somewhere he could camp out.

Ash paused as he wandered around the city. “Is that…music?”

Pikachu stuck his head out of the backpack. “Yeah, it sounds sort of like DugLeo.”

“Hm…” Ash smiled. “Let’s check it out.”

“Okay!”

The source of the music was easy to find. He just followed the music for a few minutes and found himself in front of a concert. “Wow, how’d we miss this?”

“You can be kind of oblivious when you focus on something,” said Pikachu.

Ash bobbed his head to the music for a moment. “It’s good music. I bet the others would love it! Let’s find somewhere out of the way so they can listen too.” Ash looked around before climbing up a house that was out of the way.

The houses here seemed to be in less than ideal condition.

Ash paused as he noticed one house that had someone on top of it. What was odd was that they didn’t seem to be feeling anything. Concerned, Ash decided to climb up real quick to check on whoever it was. It turned out to be a woman wearing weirdly tight clothing lying on the roof. “Are you okay?”

The woman moved so quickly that Ash barely avoided getting his throat crushed and instead got his arm grabbed so tightly that he was pretty sure she was trying to break something. A lot of things happened at once. The music hit a particularly loud chord. Ash’s aura surged into the woman. Pikachu electrocuted both of them. Something shattered. Someone screamed. Ash saw some things he really shouldn’t have.

Then the woman was curled up on the roof, Pikachu nearby and ready to attack if she made any moves. Ash knelt next to the woman but held back from touching her for the moment. “Not yet. Miss, miss, are you…That’s a stupid question. You’re not okay.” Now that he was able to get a closer look at her, he realized she was a worrying shade of blue, and then there was the fact she was unresponsive. “I…” Ash switched to Kalosian. “Are you…Can you say something? Anything?”

“Ash, why are you talking to her?” asked Pikachu. “She tried to attack you!”

“I know, just…Ugh…” How was he supposed to explain this? “I saw…I think I saw some of her memories.”

Pikachu groaned. “Is this more of your aura thing?”

“Maybe? It did something. Anyway, I don’t think the woman who attacked me and the woman here are the same person.”

Pikachu gave him a look of disbelief.

“I know that sounds weird, but that’s the only way I can think of to explain it. It actually makes sense with what I saw…” Ash stopped there. He couldn’t share that part of her life when he’d seen it without any sort of permission. “Something is very wrong.” Ash reached out, hesitated for a moment, braced himself in case she reacted badly, and put his hand on her shoulder.

Absolutely no reaction. He was picking up her emotions now though. He’d never felt someone so…sad. Ash huffed. “I can’t just leave her here.” He walked over to where she’d been lying down.

The gun at the edge of the roof made him stop short. He stared at the gun for a moment, stared at the woman, then stared at the gun again. He eventually put it in his backpack. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but he didn’t feel comfortable just leaving a gun lying around. She also had a grappling hook. Ash was more comfortable with that as he put it with the gun. Ash picked up the woman rather awkwardly. “Wow, you’re really cold.” He put her down for a moment so he could pull out a blanket to wrap around her. “Okay, time to go.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Pikachu.

“No,” admitted Ash as he tried to figure out how to move around rooftops while carrying another human.

It was difficult, but Ash eventually managed to get them onto another rooftop that he set up a quick camp on. Good thing he’d decided to get a tent. He put the woman inside before letting his Pokemon out. “Okay, we have someone who tried to attack us, but I think she was under mind control, and she is in bad shape, and I’m worried about her.”

Torracat groaned. “Why?”

“It’s…hard to explain. She’s probably dangerous, but I don’t think she’s dangerous to us right now. We need to keep an eye on her in case she tries to hurt herself.”

“Or us,” pointed out Pikachu.

Ash nodded. “Or us,” he conceded. “I don’t know how this is going to go. She might-Poipole!”

Poipole had decided to go over to the woman and poke at her face. Surprisingly, she wasn’t reacting at all the poking or even his bizarre appearance. Ash quickly grabbed him. “Sorry! He’s…young! I think. It’s kind of hard to tell.”

Still no reaction.

“Can you use your healing power?” asked Lycanroc.

Ash frowned. “That’s a good question. I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Ash took out food for the Pokemon. “You guys go ahead and eat. I’ll get something after I try the aura thing.”

Ash had never tried using his aura to heal something that wasn’t a physical injury. It hadn’t occurred to him. He wasn’t sure how to go about it. He started by cradling her head in his lap. It felt like there was some…blocks and tangles. Ash tried running his fingers and aura over them, but it didn’t change most of the mess he saw in her head. Maybe it was very slightly less tangled in that one small spot.

It was weirdly exhausting.

Eventually, Ash decided that was as much as he could do for now and climbed out to get some food. Lycanroc calmly climbed in. “I’m gonna keep her company.”

Ash nodded. “Okay, thanks.” Maybe that would help.

“You’re really doing this?” asked Torracat. “We’re already in trouble.”

Ash swallowed and sighed. “I know. I know. I can’t just ignore someone in trouble though!”

Pikachu sighed. “No, you can’t. You’re just…too nice. You need to think more about yourself.”

“I do! I go to all those leagues. I take breaks.”

“But something always happens to us during those breaks,” insisted Pikachu. “Even after Kalos! You were home for three weeks and then we ended up in Alola with Topu Koko following us around!”

Dartrix raised a wing. “Uh, what happened in Kalos?”

Ash and Pikachu winced. “A madman tried to destroy all life on the planet using Zygarde during the Kalos League. We…were there and ended up really involved,” explained Ash. “It was bad, even by our standards.”

Dartrix’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wow. You’re kind of unlucky.”

Torracat snorted. “Kind of?”

Ash took another bite of food. “Yeah, that’s an understatement. Dunno why. I got checked for curses, and nothing popped up.”

It was never dull. He would probably always be in the middle of the events people would ask about for years. Ash wouldn’t be surprised if he and his teams eventually ran into every Legendary in existence.

If he lived long enough.

Ash banished the thought. He couldn’t do anything about the insanity that was his life…that he could think of anyway. So he wasn’t going to worry about it if he didn’t need to.

He was mostly fine. It would have to do.


	4. Not The Best At Planning

They made it through the night all right, although Ash had discovered that because the woman was unresponsive, she’d made a mess of herself.

That clean up had been awkward. Maybe he should get some adult diapers. She’d understand, right?

Ash ended up buying some diapers, wipes, and a couple of changes of clothes for her. Then he had to figure out how to feed her.

He ended up mashing up fruit and spoon-feeding her.

And now he had almost no time to find dimensional experts. That figured.

Then there was some sort of huge fight near the center of the city. Ash managed to miss it, which he felt bad about, but he couldn’t really help out this time since he couldn’t leave the woman on her own. She still wasn’t moving at all. Ash definitely couldn’t leave her alone, and given the weird circumstances behind how they ‘met’ he didn’t think he could take her to a hospital.

Ash slumped. “I think we’re gonna have to take her with us,” he admitted.

“This is a horrible idea,” deadpanned Torracat.

“I know, but the other ideas are even worse!” Ash picked her up. She was still the saddest person he’d ever met. “Does anyone have anywhere they want to go in particular?” Ash got head shakes in return. “Okay then…North. One of the scientists lives in that direction.” Ash glanced at the black on his arm, which was continuing to creep upward. For some reason he had trouble focusing on the mark and what it could mean. Whenever he tried to focus, it slipped out of his mind, like water out of cupped hands. “Maybe a priest.”

Everyone was returned to their balls except for Pikachu again, and they hurried out of the city on a northern street.


	5. Time Skip #1

The next couple of weeks passed pretty smoothly. They passed through towns often enough to stock up on supplies, they were able to deal with the rare animal attack, and Ash kept up what he hoped were effective aura treatments.

He’d occasionally catch her watching him or the Pokemon. She seemed a bit more interested in the Pokemon, which Ash thought made perfect sense. They were cool and awesome, and Ash would want to watch them even back in their world. Usually, he’d let her be, but he’d sometimes try talking to her.

“You have really long hair. Do you ever do anything with it? I just shampoo my hair, but I think long hair needs other stuff.”

“Look at that cat. It has really pretty spots. I hope it doesn’t attack us.”

“Rainforest is really accurate. It rains so much. I wish I’d gotten an umbrella. I don’t mind being rained on, but I think this much can make a person sick after a while.”

“I got canned soup! It’s a bit salty, but it’s a change from mashed up fruit. I hope you’re getting all the nutrients you need.”

“Poipole sure does like you. Why do you think that is? He likes me too…Maybe he’s just really friendly.”

“Oh no…I think I got us lost. Shoot, shoot, shoot. I have a compass!...And a horrible sense of direction. I hope you don’t mind foraged food.”

“I think something’s possessing my hand. I know I said that out of nowhere, but it’s also making it hard for me to notice something’s wrong, so I wanted to tell you in case you are ever in a position to help, like finding a priest or an exorcist. I think I need one.”

She wasn’t really responding to the conversations. Ash didn’t mind. He could still talk to his team. Besides, these sorts of things take time.

Which was why Ash was surprised when he was woken up by the smell of blood. Ash sat up, looked over and saw that the woman was moving on her own. She was also scratching at her tattooed arm so much it was starting to bleed.

“Whoa!” Lycanroc beat Ash to restraining the woman and climbed over her body. Ash grabbed her hand and let Torracat sit on it. “Don’t scratch up your arm like that! Especially when we’re so far away from a town or doctors!” She breathed in and out heavily, looking Ash in the eye. Ash only broke away to grab a washcloth and a bit of antiseptic to clean it up. He ran aura through it to make it heal as he tried think of what brought this on. He asked the first thing that came to mind. “Do you hate this tattoo?”

The woman snarled and tried to wrench free, but all she managed to do was slam a fist into Ash’s chest. He grunted and grabbed her hand. “Hey!” She’d gone still again. Ash ran some aura through her arm again. “Huh, I think I’m healing you faster than I would have before we met…”

The woman didn’t answer.

Ash blinked as the injury finished healing. “All better. That worked better than I was expecting.” Did that mean that the stuff he was doing with her head was working better than he thought? The effects seemed small, but if he compared the mess to when they first met…

Ash suddenly realized that the aura in her mind was in better shape even if it was still pretty messed up. “Can…Can you understand me?”

She didn’t answer.

Ash reached for her head. She recoiled. Ash pulled his hand back. “Okay, no touching your head. Unless you give me permission. I guess.” Ash glanced at the messed up tattoo. Hopefully, that would be the end of that.

Ash caught her cutting up her tattoo with a sharp rock the very next day. “Oh come on!” He was so upset that he actually blasted the rock with a very weak aura sphere (His first functional aura sphere actually). She actually seemed startled, which Ash took advantage of to grab her arm and pour water over it. “Even I know you could damage a tendon like that! And using a rock! You could get an infection!” He started pouring aura into her arm. He took a deep breath to calm himself down a bit. “Stop hurting yourself. Please.”

“What are you?”

Ash looked at her in shock. He’d been wondering if she could talk or not. “I’m human of course!” He glanced down at her blue glow surrounding his hands and her arm. “I’m just…different.”

It was an understatement, and he was sure she knew.

“I can’t remember if I told you before, but my name is Ash. Do you have a name you’re comfortable with?”

She clenched her hand. “No.”

“Okay. Do you mind if I give you a nickname?”

“Yes.”

Ash gave her an annoyed look. “Fine.”


	6. Talking

She didn’t talk after Ash stopped her from hurting herself, but at least she was walking on her own. Carrying her had been awkward. When they got to another town, they got some better fitting clothes for her. He asked if there was any sort of food she’d like, but she still didn’t answer. He just got food that didn’t need preparation or was so simple even he couldn’t mess it up.

She didn’t talk for another couple of days. “What are these?”

Ash looked up in alarm. “Hm?”

The woman gestured towards where Poipole was trying to steal Torracat’s food.

“You mean Pokemon? They’re…I just realized I’ve never had to explain this before.” Ash thought a moment. “They’re sort of like…animals that have elemental abilities. Pikachu is an electric type, Dartrix is a grass-flying type, Lycanroc is a rock type, Torracat is a fire type, and Poipole’s a newly discovered species so while I’m pretty sure he’s a poison type it’s not a sure thing.”

She’d seen Pikachu and Torracat use electric and fire attacks by then so that seemed to be good enough for her. It was another couple of hours before she said anything else.

“Where do you find Pokemon?”

Ash got a bit shifty-eyed. “Where I’m from.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And where would that be?”

“Kanto.”

“Japan.”

Ash blinked in confusion. “Japan?”

She narrowed her eyes even more. “Kanto is a region in Japan.”

“You’d have to show me a map for me to say for sure,” said Ash.

“If you were really from Kanto, you’d know what Japan is,” pressed the woman.

“I am from Kanto!” insisted Ash. “It’s…just a different Kanto.”

“That makes no sense.”

“It doesn’t if you don’t know we’re from another world,” agreed Pikachu.

“I can’t tell her that! She’ll think I’m crazy!” said Ash.

“I already think you’re crazy,” muttered the woman.

Ash would not be surprised if he was a little crazy. “Yeah, but this is a whole different level of crazy,” insisted Ash. “Like…like…tinfoil hat conspiracy theories!” They had those here, right?

“Try me.”

Ash exchanged looks with Pikachu. “Well, I’m from an alternate universe where Pokemon roam free on every continent with a different history and different names for places. Some Pokemon can rip holes between universes, and I think I fell through one. I’m not sure. I can’t remember how I ended up here. It sounds completely insane, doesn’t it?”

“The sort of thing that would get you institutionalized,” agreed the woman. “If you didn’t have poke-mon I would think you were delusional. Considering that creatures like them should be impossible, it would be more believable if they’re from another universe where the laws of reality aren’t quite the same.” She narrowed her eyes yet again. She seemed to do that a lot. “Unless you have genetically altered normal animals.”

“I would never do something like that!” said Ash. “That’s horrible! I’ve seen-It traumatizes them and it’s irreversible and it’s selfish!”

Mewtwo

Genesect

Type Null, later Silvally

At some pint he’d clenched his hands into tight fists. “They don’t know what they are, and no one can tell them.”

The woman studied him for several moments. “You wear your heart on your sleeve.”

Ash blinked. “Wha?”

She didn’t explain. She just kept walking. “And what are you trying to do exactly?”

Ash tilted his head. She seemed confused and mistrustful. “I could only think of finding someone who knows about alternate dimensions. Physicists, I guess. Maybe find a priest for my arm.”

She gave a confused look. “What?”

“Don’t ask. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m seeing.” It was still creeping up his arm, and Ash was getting really worried.

She held up her scarred and tattooed arm. “And how did you fix my arm?”

“That was aura. That’s…actually pretty rare even where I’m from,” admitted Ash. “It’s mostly used by a specific species of Pokemon, but occasionally humans like me are born who can use it too. I’ve only ever met one other guy who can use it. You can use it for several things, mostly detection, but one of the things you can do is speed up how fast the body heals. I was never able to heal that quickly before. It was more like…Healing in six days instead of seven. It’s just that my aura abilities suddenly seem more powerful. I have no idea why.”

“Did you do something to my head?”

“I tried to untangle the tangles and blocks in it, but I stopped after you reacted badly, and I was just trying to make you able to function and move on your own anyway so…”

She gave him a look. “…If you don’t explain what you mean by that I’m going to throttle you.”

She was completely serious. “Uh, everyone has aura, every living thing and several nonliving things, but we’ll focus on animals and humans. Aura has a pathway it takes through the body like blood does, but it’s something that’s nearly impossible to see if you’re not able to see that sort of thing. Unlike blood vessels, these pathways can alter depending on certain things, especially in a person’s head. People who are normal and happy have pathways that are clear and orderly. People who are mentally ill or traumatized or that sort of thing end up with pathways in their head that are tangled or blocked or both so that the aura doesn’t move through it correctly. I’ve seen some people with really messed up heads, and yours was about as bad, but since you weren’t moving I thought maybe I could use the healing technique to straighten them out and help you. Should I have not done that?”

She looked away. “Good question,”

She wasn’t throttling him at least. They sat in awkward silence as Ash mulled on the crazy situation and battle strategies.

Once a battle trainer, always a battle trainer.

“So…what’s your plan?” asked Ash.

“I want to talk to my husband.”

Ash tilted his head. They’d had access to phones in the last town. Why hadn’t she called him? “In person?”

“Yes.”

Ah. “Okay, where is he?”

“France.”

“Uh, where is France?”

“We’ve been speaking French this whole time,” she drawled.

Ash blinked. “So…That’s what Kalos is called in this world?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Kalos?”

Ash shrugged. “I didn’t choose the names. There was this one-Poipole! Put that frog down!”

By the time Ash got the poor frog away from Poipole and made sure it was all right, she had clammed up again. Ash thought they were good.

Then she tried cutting up the tattoo on her leg. Ash was annoyed, but let her destroy it before he healed it and gave her a lecture. He didn’t think he got through to her, but it was worth a try.

He wondered what those tattoos were even for.


	7. Alcoholic

After a couple of days, they got to a town where Ash did some trading for supplies and the woman…somehow got some make-up foundation and a large bottle of some sort of alcohol. Ash thought the stuff smelled awful so he didn’t pay attention to it most of the time. He knew that it took a lot of time and/or alcohol to hurt yourself though so he didn’t think anything of it.

And then she managed to drink half the bottle in a couple of hours.

“You’re going to give yourself alcohol poisoning!” insisted Ash as he tried to wrestle the bottle away from her.

“I don’t care,” she slurred.

“What is this anyway? Shouldn’t it take more to get you this drunk?”

“Didn’t ask.”

Pikachu gave them both a light shock. Ash was so used to it that he barely noticed. The woman was not and seized for a few seconds, which Ash took advantage of to snatch the bottle away from her and shove it into his backpack.

The woman glared at Pikachu. “Stupid squirrel.”

“I’m a mouse!”

“He’s a mouse,” parroted Ash. “And I think we’re gonna have to find a room for tonight. I do not feel comfortable wandering around with you like this.”

“I could still snap your neck if I wanted to,” she slurred.

“I’m more worried about other people,” muttered Ash. At least he knew to keep an eye out for that sort of thing from her. Plus considering all the near death experiences he’d had a drunk…assassin wasn’t as scary as it probably should be, even back home.

Wow, his priorities were even more skewed than he thought.

So Ash managed to bargain a small room with one bed. Ash shrugged, pulled out his sleeping bag, and curled up with Pikachu on the floor. He thought he heard some muttering in French.


	8. Hangover

Amelie LeCroix (not Widowmaker) had a drinking problem. She knew this. She accepted this. She felt it was completely justified given her situation in general.

She hated her life so, so much. At least when she was drunk she forgot that for a little while.

Too bad she always woke up with a horrible hangover.

Amelie was trying to cover her eyes with her arm and cheap blanket so her pounding migraine would stop trying to split her skull in two. Something was placed on the bed next to her head. “Drink some water,” said Ash.

Amelie muttered some thanks and slowly drank the water. Eventually the migraine lessened to a headache so she finally pulled herself out from under the covers. Ash was just finishing feeding his Pokemon (What a ridiculous sounding name) and was eating some sort of dry cereal. He waved. “Morning. Feel up to eating?”

Amelie’s stomach let her know that in no way was she to eat anything with a particularly nasty recoil. “Non. I am going to take a shower.”

Ash got a disturbed look on his face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

Amelie raised an eyebrow and went to see for herself. The shower had no curtain. The cold water handle was broken, there was some kind of mold lining the tub, and the soap was covered in dust. Amelie made an annoyed sound and decided to settle for splashing water on her face so that she felt a little less gross. She looked at her reflection. She hated it.

She wished she never had to look at it again.

Too bad Ash was doing a very good job at keeping her alive. She didn’t know why she didn’t just leave him on his own. Then she could die with no one around to stop her.

She glanced at Ash. He was laughing while his wolf-dog happily nuzzled him.

…

Amelie used to be happy like that.


	9. Rain

The next morning the woman was badly hungover. Ash decided to give her a bottle of water as a peace offering, but she was still giving him the silent treatment when the left the town up until they were settling down for lunch.

“How the fuck do you fit so much in that bag of yours?” she muttered.

Ash blinked. “Huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “You can fit a sleeping bag, a tequila bottle, various camping supplies, spare clothing, and various toiletries in that bag. All those items together take up more space than the bag. It makes no sense.”

“Yeah, it does. It’s a capsule bag,” said Ash.

The woman groaned. “You do remember you’re in another universe where things operate differently, right?”

Ash blinked. “Oh. Right. You really don’t have anything like capsule bags?”

“Would I be asking if there were?” she deadpanned.

Good point. Ash was hit by a sudden idea. “Oh! I’ll explain it to you if you let me give you a nickname!”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“I don’t like thinking of you as ‘woman’. It seems dehumanizing.”

“What about your weird pets?”

“They have names, even if they don’t translate well into human language, and I don’t want to take that from them,” said Ash. He and N had had an interesting conversation on the subject once.

“And yet you want to give me a new name,” pointed out the woman.

“I can’t take your name when you won’t show it to me,” argued Ash.

The woman frowned at him. “Do you know how bizarre that logic sounds?”

Ash thought for a moment. “We’re bizarre so we can’t use normal logic.”

“That’s so true,” said all the Pokemon.

She slumped. “Fine, but if it’s something stupid…”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve actually been thinking on it for the past few days,” said Ash. “It’s not stupid at all: Ame.”

“What?!”

Ash actually recoiled at the anger in her voice as Pikachu and Lycanroc got in front of him. “Wha-”

“Where did you hear that name?!”

“Hear? But I-It’s Nipp-Japanese!” he corrected. “It’s ‘rain’ in Japanese!”

That brought her up short. “Huh?”

“‘Ame’ means rain,” repeated Ash. “Because you’re blue and cold and sad, but rain gives life to plants, which give support the lives of living creatures, even if indirectly. And if the conditions are right, you can see a rainbow, which make everyone happy,” explained Ash. “You don’t like it?”

Ame stared at him for several moments. “It’s…fine.” She walked behind a tree and slid into a sitting position. Ash started to walk over.

“Ash, maybe you should give her some space,” said Pikachu.

Ash paused and hesitated for a moment before nodding and sitting down on the opposite side of the tree as the woman so that neither could see the other. He didn’t say anything, waiting for Ame to say something.

She was silent.

Ash waited for a while before finally saying something. “I can come up with another name,” he offered. “Or…I could just go back to not calling you anything.”

She didn’t respond for a while. “Ame’s fine. I was just…caught off guard.”

Ash decided not to press what had been startling about the name. It seemed to be a personal matter. For now, it was probably best if she had a break from interacting with anyone.


	10. Amelie Gets That Explanation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have gotten 2 and a half hours of sleep, two hours of attempted sleep, and don't feel as tired as expected, but I am so frustrated with my brain right now. Yesterday, I ended up awake in the middle of the night for like three hours, but at least I got back to sleep.  
> I hope this isn't gonna be a theme for my vacation.

Amelie was still very confused as to Ash had gotten a nickname so close to her real name after thinking for most of the evening, sleeping, and poking at her bland breakfast. All she could think of was that when she’d gotten a look at some of his memories, he’d seen a few of hers.

If that was the case she was fine with the conversation stopping where it had.

It was after they finished eating and Lycanroc had decided her lap made a good pillow that Ash finally said something. “You still want to know how my backpack works?”

Amelie nodded while she cautiously pat Lycanroc. His fur didn’t exactly feel like hair. It felt sort of like metal wires but not quite.

Ash plucked one of the red and white balls off his belt and held it up. “You know how I keep most of my Pokemon team inside pokeballs when we’re around other people?” Lycanroc barked something that had Ash smiling apologetically. “I will.”

Amelie wondered what had been said as she gave Ash a quick nod to get him back on track.

“Anyway, you know that it changes Pokemon into energy and data so that they can be carried around. Personally, I like leaving mine out, but there are some places, like apartment buildings where that can be dangerous,” explained Ash. “This works with any living thing, except for humans. There’s a failsafe to prevent that because the makers were worried someone might try using it to kidnap people.”

“Shame.” Amelie could think of a few people she’d like to keep in one of those balls simply so she wouldn’t have to see them again.

Ash gave her a look. “You have issues.” She gave him a look. “Anyway, whoever did this didn’t start with living creatures. They started with inanimate objects like building materials or electronic equipment. Later they expanded to foods because storing as energy and data prevented anything from spoiling. Then they managed to put together a system that could let you store multiple items and pull one item out without having to pull them all out. These were incorporated into bags, which made errands and traveling and a lot of other stuff a lot easier. You just have to put it in, and it’s automatically digitized. You can set a few items to stay solid though, mostly stuff you use on a daily basis like my sleeping bag and tent. That sort of thing. If you want something that’s been digitized, there’s a small keypad inside that lets you choose an item, and a screen that shows a picture of it.” Ash opened the backpack and pointed to a small keypad and screen set in the back. Amelie was mildly annoyed to see that the keys had Japanese characters on them. “There’s not much that can’t be digitized so a lot of people who travel save up for them.”

“Do you have any idea how valuable such a device could be?” asked Amelie.

“Yeah, 5,000 pokedollars, and the really expensive ones are five figures,” said Ash. “The mechanism’s small, but it’s complicated.”

Amelie snorted. “You are so naïve.”

This could be used for smuggling. A border agent would look through the bag, see a few normal items, and miss the contraband actually being transported. Or it could be used to transport more valuable materials without catching the eye of someone, like Talon, who would like to intercept the shipment. Although…Amelie supposed that if this technology was commonplace in Ash’s world they lost most of the advantages she was thinking of.

“It’s just a backpack. Anyone can get one,” argued Ash, proving her point in her eyes. “Now, if it was one of the specialized storage units for…fancy computer chips or the ones that can transport between containers-”

That did make the backpack seem somewhat less impressive. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know. I think quantum physics had something to do with it. Maybe. It sounds like some sort of teleportation, and that’s a physics thing,” mused Ash.

“Your world figured out teleportation?”

“Yes. We also use it to transport Pokemon,” added Ash. He paused. “Have I mentioned that trainers can only carry six Pokemon on their person but can have a lot more Pokemon so long as they have a place to keep them?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s the law. Sometimes you need to change your team line up for a match, and it would be really inefficient to go back and forth or have Pokemon shipped from location to location, not to mention dangerous, so we also use the data-energy system to transport Pokeballs and Pokemon,” explained Ash. He sighed. “It’s amazing how much you can take something for granted until it’s gone.”

That hit a little too close to home for Amelie.

“I, uh, I think that’s everything,” said Ash. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“What is Lycanroc’s fur made of?”

“Filamentous minerals,” answered Ash.

That sounded about right. “I can’t think of anything immediate, but perhaps you can tell me whatever comes to mind on the relevant subjects.”

Ash’s face lit up. “Oh! The stories of my life!”

Amelie had a bad feeling about this.


	11. Birds Of A Feather

“…And now there are squads that deal with hackers by going into the computers with Porygon,” said Ash. “Some hackers use them too, but the production of Porygon is really heavily controlled. You have to present all sorts of documentation and certification, and you get your computers and digital files looked over by another officer with a Porygon. But occasionally you get regular trainers who have one. Maybe they do part time security. I didn’t understand the whole thing even when it was happening so I definitely wouldn’t qualify.”

Ame looked weirded out. “How often did this sort of thing happen to you?”

“It happened once or twice a week when I started out,” said Ash. He huffed. “It happened more often after about a…year and a half.”

“It really picked up in Johto,” agreed Pikachu.

“Yeah, it increased at a pace that it wasn’t overwhelming and we were able to get used to it, but it was fast enough so we knew it was picking up, but we had no idea how to change it.” It was annoying but Ash suspected that this insanity was part of the reason his teams got so strong. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

“You have mentioned this ‘Team Rocket’ several times now. Why are they not in jail?”

“They’re part of a larger organization,” explained Ash. “I think they even get training. Maybe they have a legal team? Actually, would they even need those? Most of the time they get blown away to the horizon so I guess by the time police get there they’ve gotten out of there.”

“I don’t think their boss would care enough,” said Pikachu.

Ash nodded. “He is a jerk.”

“You’ve met him?” asked Lycanroc.

“A couple of times. I don’t think he remembers the last time. Mewtwo said he wiped his memory,” explained Ash.

“You have Pokemon that can wipe memories?” questioned Ame.

Ash nodded. “Only the most powerful and skilled psychic types, and generally they won’t unless directed to by a trainer. That’s illegal outside of certain medical procedures that are last resort things. Misusing that sort of thing can get you a life sentence.”

“And what happened to Mewtwo’s trainer?”

“Uh, he didn’t have one. He’s a special case.” Mewtwo was a clone of a legendary Pokemon, but did that make him a legendary Pokemon? Even Mewtwo didn’t seem to know for sure.

Huh, had Mewtwo noticed Ash and several Pokemon missing?

Ame gave him a considering look. “Has anyone tried altering your memory?”

Ash frowned. “Mewtwo admitted to erasing something that he said was incredibly traumatic. Wouldn’t say what it was, but Team Rocket actually agreed with him! I think that was the only time someone messed with my memory. Mewtwo put some sort of mental bond in place that he sometimes uses to check up on me. Pretty sure he would’ve mentioned something if someone did that.”

“And you trust him?” Ame asked incredulously.

Ash nodded. “Kind of hard to put into words, but…it feels like he wants redemption for something. I think he might have killed someone, which is awful but kind of understandable considering what happened to him, and don’t ask me what happened because I promised not to talk about it.”

Ame seemed to understand.

“Plus he just wants to be left alone and avoid human interaction. It would make more sense for him to erase the memories of me and any other humans that have seen him, but he doesn’t. I think he’s realized that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” Ash blinked. “Huh.”

“Hm?”

“I just realized that you sort of remind me of him,” explained Ash.

Ame looked shocked for a brief moment before schooling her features. “No wonder you don’t talk about his past.”


	12. Bartering Ketchum Style

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went gem mining today. Interesting experience. :) Sort of fits with the next two chapters even.

Amelie didn’t want to go into towns or cities or really any settlement, but sometimes they needed supplies that couldn’t be scavenged, and since finding out about Ash’s backpack she’d insisted that they buy from several stores to keep anyone from noticing anything odd.

“We’re running low on funds. Can we stop to sell some pearls?” Ash asked in French.

Amelie blinked. “Pearls? Where did you find pearls?”

“They’re from back home. I was staying in Alola (Pretty sure that’s Hawaii here.), and when I practiced my aura on the beach, I could find some valuable stuff washed up on the sand that I decided to save in case I ever needed money,” explained Ash. “But, uh, I just realized I might have a problem.”

“What now?”

“Well, when I first got here I decided to sell some pearls to a jewelry store, and I noticed that the pearls here are a lot smaller than they normally get back home, and I already sold the smaller ones.”

Amelie blinked. “How big do pearls normally get in your world?” Ash held up a fisted hand. Amelie blamed the time it took for her to comprehend what that meant on how impossible that should have been. Her mouth fell open. “That big?”

Ash nodded. “We have more colors than white too.”

“So do we. That’s just the most common,” explained Amelie, a bit shocked. “How big are oysters in your world?”

Ash frowned. “Oyster?”

“You don’t know what an oyster is?” Amelie asked incredulously.

“Should I?”

“That’s where pearls come from.”

Ash blinked before seeming to realize something. “Oh! Right. You don’t have Clamperl so they have to come from somewhere.”

“Let me guess: Clamperl is a Pokemon that makes pearls,” guessed Ame.

Ash nodded. “Right. Maybe I can get a sketchpad so I can show you what they look like. Anyway, they’re made up of two shells that can close up. Their main body is inside. They mostly eat by filtering sea water, but they can eat other things if they want or need to. Anyway, they sometimes get a sand or something else small stuck inside their shells, and coat it with something so it’s less irritating and that becomes a pearl.”

Ame nodded. “That’s how it works with oysters too.”

“Hm…How intelligent are oysters?” asked Ash.

Ame gave him a weird look. “I’m not even sure they have brains.”

Ash looked shocked. “Are-Are you serious?! That must be why the pearls are so much smaller! Clamperl are intelligent!”

It was Ame’s turn to feel surprised. “They are?”

“Uh huh! And producing a big pearl is a sign of strength in Clamperl, so they generally try to hold onto them for as long as possible so they’ll get bigger. They only usually give them up if it starts interfering with closing their shell since that’ll put them in danger,” explained Ash.

Clamperls must be huge. She kind of wanted to see one of these big pearls but figured it wasn’t the best place for that. Maybe later. “How big are the ones you want to sell?”

Ash slipped a hand into a pocket and pulled out a couple of small bags with cotton balls in them. He pulled the first pearl out. It was noticeably bigger than usual, but not significantly so. Then he pulled out the other pearl, which was roughly twice the size of a standard pearl and had a bit of a blue sheen to it. If incorporated into a piece of jewelry, it would make a lovely centerpiece.

“I don’t believe it would be safe to sell both in the same location. I suggest selling one of them here and the other in the next location we stop at. If they get much bigger than these, you might not be able to keep up selling them.”

“I have some other things, but I’m not sure if they’ll sell well here,” muttered Ash.

Amelie made a note to have him show her all of these items. “Well, let’s hurry up and sell one of these. I’m not comfortable with keeping them out in the open.”

“Okay. Which do you think will sell more?” asked Ash.

“The blue one.”

The town only had one jewelry store. Amelie didn’t know enough Portuguese to completely understand what happened there.

Ash hailed an unimpressed sales clerk over and said something in Portuguese. The clerk shrugged and said something in response. Ash pulled out the pearl. The clerk blinked in surprise and studied it for a moment before saying something.

Ash must not have liked what clerk said because he crossed his arms with an annoyed look on his face. A short argument followed before the clerk threw their arms up and walked away.

Within a few moments, a man wearing jeweler’s glasses came out, looking more curious than anything. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the pearl and he proceeded to study it more thoroughly than the clerk did. He said a few sentences to Ash. Ash nodded and said something back. The man nodded as well before saying something back. Ash thought for a minute before giving a short answer. The man gave an equally short answer. They went back and forth with this for a bit, which Amelie realized was probably haggling of a sort.

Eventually, they must have come to an agreement because the man printed up some paperwork that Ash started filling out while he moved to the back. Amelie checked and decided the payment was decent enough. By the time Ash finished, the man had returned with some money, which was exchanged for the paperwork and pearl. The two shook on it, had some parting words, and that was that.

“I have to admit, you did a surprisingly good job,” admitted Amelie.

Ash smirked. “Any long time trainer learns how to barter so they can get extra money from items they find or can harvest from certain Pokemon. I can even use aura detection to pick up on when buyers try to cheat me.”

Ah. That did explain quite a bit. It wasn’t that Ash had known how much his treasures were worth. He could just tell when the people who did know tried to hide it from him. It was a bit of a relief if she was completely honest. She’d been worried he’d assume the first offer was the best and take it.


	13. Ash Has Picked Up A Few Things

Ash was getting a bit worried about how still Ame was being.

As soon as they’d gotten a distance from the latest town, he’d taken out his ‘emergency fund’ box and opened it to show her what he had in it. That had been five minutes ago, and she still wasn’t moving.

Lycanroc poked her cheek with his snout. She instinctively punched him. Lycanroc jerked back and whimpered. “Ow! Why’d you do that?!”

“You hurt Lycanroc’s feelings,” translated Ash.

“Sorry,” Ame said absentmindedly. Lycanroc clearly didn’t feel it was sincere and decided to beg for scratches from Ash. Ash figured that with all the stuff he and the others had to put up with lately they deserved it. Pikachu ended up under Ash’s hands too while Poipole floated around them.

Thankfully, Dartrix was sleeping, and Torracat was stalking something. Ash was already running out of hands.

Finally Ame picked up a purple pearl rough 7 cm in diameter. “These are normal sizes for pearls?”

“Yeah, some are really big though.” He had one that was 12 cm in diameter. “Those are used for decorations.”

Ame put down the purple pearl and picked up a lime green one. “I’m not even sure some of these colors are natural.”

“They must be. I found them along rivers and beaches,” pointed out Ash.

Ame nodded in agreement and put the green pearl back before pulling out a gold nugget. “Where did you even find this gold?”

“Rivers again. There was this one place where you could pay 20 dollars for a bucket that you sifted through to look for valuable items. It’s mostly for fun, but I did find a couple of nuggets in them.”

Ame put down the gold and picked up a shard of metal with a blue tint and pockets of a clear, orange substance. “I don’t even know what this is.”

“It’s a star shard.”

“A what?”

“A shard from a shooting star.”

Ame gave him a wide-eyed look. “You carry around a piece of meteorite in you backpack?”

Ash nodded. “Mmhm.”

“Where did you even find this?”

“A desert. I also found part of a fossil that I gave to a guy who collected them to bring them back to life to study them.”

Ame made a face. “Bring fossils back-Like Jurassic Park?”

Ash blinked. “Is that a park where resurrected extinct species live? I didn’t know you had those.”

“We don’t. Jurassic park is a work of fiction exploring the idea,” explained Ame as she put the star shard back.

Ash had to admit he was a bit disappointed.

Ame pulled out a heart scale that she turned about in her hand curiously. “That’s a heart scale. They’re not exactly valuable, but some artists and collectors will trade you more valuable items for them,” explained Ash. “They’re particularly popular with young women and couples.”

“You don’t say,” drawled Ame. “Do you have anything else I should know about?”

Ash thought a moment. “I…do have one more emergency box, but it’s for medicine.” Ash paused to take it out. “I absolutely have to avoid using most of this stuff because you don’t…Half the materials needed to make these don’t even exist here. It seems like there’s something similar to the potions, but it was so expensive…”

“You have jam in your first aid kit?”

“Pecha berries counteract most poisons, and you don’t even need a lot,” explained Ash. “That’s why a lot of this medicine doesn’t exist here. They’re made using fruits and medicinal herbs that aren’t here, and I know enough about invasive species that I’m not gonna try introducing them just to make my life a bit easier.”

Ame was looking over a Full Restore that thankfully had instructions in Albanian halfway down the side, along with Nippongo and Espana. “This does sound similar to something we have.” She put the Full Restore back and slid the box back over to Ash. “However, I would like to point out that you have healing powers.”

Ash blushed. “Well, Full Restores can practically bring you back from the edge of death. I don’t think I could do that. Besides, if I get knocked out I can’t heal myself.”

Ame didn’t look completely convinced but dropped the subject. “How much damage can you take before losing consciousness?”

Ash frowned. That was a bit tricky. He could take more hits than most humans, but some of that was kind of specific. He could shake off a shock from Pikachu in less than a second. Others needed several moments. And he knew he was more resistant to heat and fire than normal due to how Charizard showed affection…

Ash’s thoughts were cut off when Torracat calmly dropped what looked like some sort of giant rodent at Ash’s feet, looking proud of himself. “I caught dinner.”

Ash stared at the dead animal for a moment before looking to Ame. “Do you know how to cook…this? If not I think I’ll just have to feed it to Torracat, Lycanroc, and maybe Dartrix.”

Ame made a face. “I am not touching that.”

Torracat turned his nose up at her. “Picky.”

Ame had no idea why Ash burst out laughing.


	14. Midnight

Amelie woke up from a nightmare rather suddenly as she usually did. She groaned and held her head in her hands. She’d had nightmares for 10 nights straight. Not that she hadn’t had longer stretches where she dealt with nightmares…

“Hoo?”

Amelie glanced towards Dartrix, who had a half-eaten mango in his beak and was tilting his head curiously. “Just another nightmare.”

Dartrix had gotten used to said nightmares and nodded in understanding before offering her the rest of the mango. When he wasn’t sleeping, which was mostly at night, he was just as friendly as Lycanroc. Amelie considered for a moment, decided that she didn’t particularly care about catching something from owl spit, and took the proffered mango. Dartrix hooted happily and settled down next to her.

It was a bit surreal traveling with such a friendly owl when Reaper had had a bit of an owl theme. For a moment, Amelie had a brief flashback to some old movies she’d seen as a kid about a boy wizard learning magic. Owls had been a big deal and were used to deliver mail. Amelie snorted at sudden mental image of Ash in robes with a wand. “I don’t suppose Ash is a wizard?” commented Amelie.

Dartrix gave her a confused look and shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.” She wondered if they had anything like that in Ash’s world. Something to ask him. He probably had some sort of story about magic, even if it wasn’t real magic.

The kid seemed to have stories about everything. Or at least second hand stories.

She finished off the mango and wiped off her hands as best she could but decided she needed some water and a towel to get all of it off. She grabbed the backpack, waking up Ash for a moment. “Nan…?

“Just getting some water,” said Ame.

“Oh…” murmured Ash as he fell back to sleep.

Ame sort of had an idea how to work the backpack. Thankfully, it had categories that she could look through. Some sort of spray bottles, skip. A ball that looked like the ones Ash kept Pokemon in, skip. What looked like some sort of fruit, maybe. She scrolled down but only saw more fruits that both looked familiar and alien. When she got to the spiky tomato, she decided to go to the next category. That had several food items, so she looked through it again. Lots of instant stuff, some things that would normally be refrigerated, soy sauce, eggs, cheese, milk (Maybe she should ask for some omelets. She was getting sick of instant food.), ketchup, and she got to the end without seeing any water.

Next category finally had some drink items. The first was some sort of juice, but the second was some sort of water bottle, that she pulled out. She was careful not to pour out too much for obvious reasons, but was able to clean up and put it back.

Then she noticed that the next item in this particular category was a bottle of sake. Was this where her bottles of liquor had ended up? She scrolled down a bit and after some more bottles of drinks from Ash’s world (some soda, water, tea and some sort of purple liquid that she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the identity of) Amelie finally found the various bottles of liquor that Ash had gotten away from her and stashed so she couldn’t get to them.

Looks like that wasn’t gonna work anymore.

She didn’t bother perusing her choices. It was all cheap booze. She just grabbed the first one and pulled it out. Dartrix hopped over and hooted several times with a worried set to his eyes.

“I’m an adult. I can make my own choices,” shot Ame as she popped the bottle open.


	15. Ame Got Drunk

Ash was shaken awake by Dartrix when it was still dark. Ash blinked a bit blearily. “Nan desu…”

“Ash, Ame has been drinking that stinky water since she woke up last night, and she’s starting to behave strangely,” said Dartrix.

“Stinky water? What are you…” And Ash snapped awake as he realized what that could describe. “Oh shoot!” He scrambled out of his sleeping bag as he saw Ame sitting next to his backpack with two empty liquor bottles next to her and another nearly empty one in her hand. “The sun hasn’t even risen and you’re already drinking?!”

“I woke up three hours ago,” slurred Ame, proving that she was also already drunk.

“That’s just as bad!” said Ash. Ame ignored him and went to take a drink. “Pikachu, iron tail!”

Pikachu dashed over and used his tail to smash the bottle Ame was holding. Ame stared at the broken bottle for several moments before dropping it and reaching For Ash’s backpack.

Ash snatched it away. “I think you’ve had enough for one day.”

“I’ll be sober by the afternoon,” muttered Ame.

“Good. It can’t be safe to be drunk in the middle of the jungle,” pointed out Ash.

“Fine. I’ll have an omelet.” asked Ame.

Ash blinked at the seemingly random subject change. “What brought that up?”

“You have the ingredients,” Ame said, nodding towards the backpack.

Ash thought about what he had in his backpack, but it was pretty easily to lose track of what was in there, especially some of the food items since he didn’t try to cook that often. It was usually a waste of time and ingredients. “Let me check.” If he did, she might be able to make an omelet.

“Fresh food would be nice,” said Lycanroc.

“You had whatever that was last night,” pointed out Pikachu.

“Omelets would still be nice.”

“Hold on, hold on…” He had moo moo milk (He’d forgotten he had a couple of bottles still.) cheese (made from moo moo milk), butter (once again made from moo moo milk), some things that could be probably be put in omelets, and… “Oh. Sorry, I don’t think you can make an omelet.”

“Of course I can make an omelet. I’m French,” said Ame.

Ash thought for a moment. If France was Kalos’s counterpart, good food was a huge deal over there, so cooking was something everyone would know. He nodded. “You probably can, but I don’t have chicken eggs. I have Chansey eggs.” And then he pulled one out.

It should be noted that the largest egg of any living bird on Earth is the ostrich egg. Pokemon eggs were larger. There was a small bit of variety based on the size of the species, but not as wide a variety as the eggs found on Earth. Also, only Chansey could lay unfertilized eggs for some reason.

Ame sort of stared at the head sized egg for several moments like she was still considering making an omelet.

“Besides, that seems like a reward for getting drunk, which I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t do,” continued Ash as he put the egg back in the backpack.

Ame snorted. “What are you my mother?”

“I don’t know what I am to you,” muttered Ash. Sometimes it felt like they were just traveling together. Sometimes he felt like her caretaker, which was so bizarre given how much younger he was. He wasn’t even sure they were friends, but he felt like she could use one. He dug out a bottle of water and tossed it to her. “Just, drink some water and try to sober up a bit.”


	16. Amelie Probably Shouldn't Get Drunk

Amelie woke up with a pounding headache and sat up with a groan.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said Ash as he poked at a pot. She recognized some packs of instant soup nearby. “Do you remember what happened?”

“I drunk myself into unconsciousness,” said Amelie. Everyone snorted. Everyone. Even Poipole. “What?”

“Uh, you didn’t drink yourself into unconsciousness, although if that’s happened before I’m kind of worried,” explained Ash. “You were awake when I took the bottle away from you. You seriously don’t remember anything after that?”

Ame shook her head.

“Well, after I gave you some water, you complained about omelets and giant eggs (I guess I can get some chicken eggs if that’s such a big deal to you.), then you started doing some surprisingly good ballet dancing while we walked, then you got into an argument with some sort of animal that looked like a Slakoth, then I tried to get you to sit down for a bit, and then you tripped, hit your head, and knocked yourself out.”

Amelie blinked and felt her head. She didn’t feel any bumps, but there was one spot that was damp and colder than usual like someone had put a cold compress on it. She didn’t feel so as a bump to indicate she’d fallen though.

“So, we had to stop,” continued Ash. “I was worried for a moment because it looked like blood was starting to pool in your brain, but eventually I figured out how to drain it and healed everything else.”

Amelie blinked. Did he just admit to doing brain surgery on her? He didn’t seem to act like it was a big deal besides some relief that it had worked. Then again, from what she’s seen of his logic he might not consider it surgery if it didn’t involve cutting someone open.

Amelie belatedly realized that her head injury probably would have killed her without prompt medical treatment. “Why do you care so much about whether I live or die?”

Ash blinked. “That’s…kind of hard to put into words. I guess…Life is precious. I don’t think I can let any slip away if I can help it.”

The irony was overwhelming, but Amelie was the only one who felt it. She rubbed her temples. “You must be the only person in the world who cares about what happens to me.”

Ash frowned. “That’s really depressing.”

Amelie supposed it was from an outside perspective, but she felt it was pretty understandable.

“Well, time to eat up!” Ash spooned some soup into a bowl and handed it to her. “You slept through lunch so I bet you’re hungry!”

She was, but she wasn’t particularly looking forward to eating the soup. She could see bits of dried vegetables and meat, and the color was off putting. “You can’t even cook instant food well.”

Ash nodded. “That is completely true. It’s why I stick to instant stuff. Every time I try something more complicated it goes completely wrong. There was this one time I tried eating it and threw up purple glitter somehow.”

Amelie really hoped he was joking. Or at least exaggerating. How could anyone be that bad? So her options were instant food, some scavenged food, or liquor. “That’s it. I’m going to start cooking. It’s not like I have to worry about ingredients going bad.”

Of all the ways she’d considered killing herself, food poisoning had never been one.


	17. Harder Than It Looks

Ame was staring at the Chansey egg again. This time she was sober and seemed determined to turn it into something they could eat. Pikachu, Torracat, and Lycanroc were sitting nearby hoping to get something from her. Dartrix preferred fruit so he was giving them space and happily eating some large yellow ones that he’d found. Poipole was floating around curiously not really focusing on any one person.

Ash was personally waiting to see what happened. He didn’t know how good a cook Ame was besides the fact she was better than him, but she had never even thought of cooking an egg as big as a Chansey’s. Actually, most people back home wouldn’t try either. Chansey eggs were usually beaten and packaged in cartons so you didn’t have to use the whole thing at once. Generally, the only ones who bothered cooking whole eggs were restaurants who served a lot of people.

As for why Ash had some eggs instead of the cartons: Brock gave them to him on a semi-regular basis. Ash usually gave them to whatever traveling companion could cook or his mother. He hadn’t quite used up the last batch he’d received.

Ame made an annoyed sound. “Why don’t you have a cheese grater?”

“Uh, I’ve never needed one. Should be some knives in there. Not cooking knives, eating knives. Will those work?” asked Ash.

Ame nodded and pulled out one of the knives. Then she went back to staring at the egg and mixing bowl. She picked it up in both hands and experimentally tapped the edge of the mixing bowl with it. Then she hit it harder and nearly sent the bowl flying.

Chansey eggs could be unexpectedly tough. Ash grabbed the bowl to hold it steady. Ame grunted in thanks and tried cracking the egg again. Ash did hear a cracking sound, but didn’t see anything. The next hit finally visibly cracked the egg. After a couple more moments she managed to separate the two halves and dump the contents into the bowl. She looked at the fork she’d grabbed for stirring. It looked rather feeble compared to what was in the bowl.

Maybe Ash should get some sort of stirring utensil along with the cheese grater.

Ame started beating the egg. It took a few minutes. Then she added some milk and salt a few times. Eventually she decided it looked good. Then she put some butter in the frying pan she’d put on the fire earlier and…fried some mushrooms?

Well, it was her omelet. She could do whatever she wanted with it.

Ame pushed the mushrooms onto a place and poured some of the egg mixture into the pan. After a few moments, she cut some cheese into the omelet and sprinkled some of the mushroom pieces on it. After a bit more cooking, flipping, and folding, she pushed it onto a plate. She picked it up…

And Ame was immediately met with three sets of big eyes looking her in the eye and an amused Ash. Lucky for her, Poipole was less interested in the omelet than the others and was now eating fruit with Dartrix. “Didn’t you ever teach your Pokemon not to beg?”

“Well, Torracat used to live on the streets. Stole my sandwiches a couple of times,” muttered Ash. “Uh, anyway, Pokemon do have some dietary differences compared to humans, but they can eat the same things as us for the most part. I actually like sharing my food with ‘em,” admitted Ash. “It’s pretty common with professional trainers since it builds bonds.”

Ame stared at the eyes some more. “Fine! You can have it!” She shoved the plate at them. Pikachu caught it and the three happily started eating it.

“Don’t fill up on that omelet. You should still have some of the food I got for you.” It probably wasn’t as good as the Pokemon food in his world, but Ash had spent enough time with Brock to have some idea of what he needed to add to the regular animal food he’d had to buy.

He didn’t think any of the food had the ridiculously high amount of minerals Lycanroc needed to consume at least once a week.

Ame fixed another omelet and glanced at Ash. He shrugged as he was hungry but could wait. So she ate her omelet while making another omelet that she gave to Ash. “Thank you!” said Ash before digging in. “This is really good!”

Ame grunted as she studied the leftover egg mixture, trying to figure out what to do with it. Ash had some containers they could use. He pulled one out and handed it to her. She muttered a thanks, poured the egg mixture into it, and put the container back in the backpack.

Ash smiled. This felt almost normal. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back home traveling in a new region.

He’d never felt more homesick.

Ash opened his eyes. He couldn’t doubt that they would get home. They had to…and…and…

What would happen to Ame when they left?

Ash stared at Ame as he realized that if he left Ame here on her own, she probably wouldn’t survive. But would she even want to go home with him? Could she? He’d noticed that humans in this world seemed weaker than back home. He wasn’t sure how much weaker, but even if Ame’s skills offset some of that…Could she survive an electric shock? How badly would an ember hurt her? Would grass Pokemon pollen cause a reaction?

“You’re staring,” said Ame, interrupting his thoughts.

“Ah! Just thinking.” Ash wasn’t sure he should bring it up. He didn’t think she’d make a rational decision at the moment. “If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you go?”

“…A small town in France.”

He guessed she was homesick too.


	18. Derailed Shopping

Amelie had no idea what she was looking at. They’d reached another town and found a supermarket, and Amelie had realized additional reasons why Ash had been sticking to instant food. The brands were unfamiliar, some of the ingredients were a lot more expensive than normal, some were less expensive, and she didn’t recognize some of the items here at all.

Maybe she should stick to simple stuff.

Ash was examining some star-shaped fruits, even smelling it a bit. Now he was sniffing a purple fruit that was not a plum. Well, you don’t have to cook most fruit. She grabbed some apples, glad to see something she recognized, and grabbed a bunch of bananas too. Then she grabbed some tomatoes that were several different colors and shapes but still tomatoes. That should be enough. “Where is the bread?”

Ash pointed at a sign. “The bakery’s right around the corner. So, what’re you gonna cook?”

“Something simple.” Toasted bread with olive oil and grilled tomatoes were what she was planning so far. Maybe some roasted chicken and asparagus…

Ash suddenly froze, staring at a wall for a split second before jumping at her and trying to push her down. Amelie instinctively caught him and put him into a hold.

Then the wall exploded.

Amelie blinked as a car driven by a laughing man drove through the new hole in the wall. A huge man in a gas mask was in the back and holding up a huge hook so that it was carving through the ceiling. The car drove through several shelves before spinning a couple of times and speeding through a window amid the screams of other customers.

…Amelie was pretty sure those were the two Australian Junkers the higher ups of Talon occasionally debated hiring. Ash said something in Japanese that she was going to assume denoted shock. “Well, I don’t think we’ll be able to buy anything here.”

“We gotta do something!”

Amelie shook her head. “Do you know who those two were?”

“…Criminals?”

Amelie snorted. “That’s putting it lightly. They are Junkrat and Roadhog, a pair of criminals from Australia who have been traveling around the world robbing without any sort of pattern. They’re just as likely to rob an arcade center as a bank. Besides that, they’re from the Australian Outback, which has been more or less the worst place to live on the planet since the Omnium meltdown. The only people who live there are the dregs of society who have no choice and are willing to do anything to survive. They don’t have morals. They probably don’t have sanity. These two are especially bad from what I’ve seen. Junkrat will find any excuse to blow something up, and he has more bombs than should be possible for him to carry on his person. Roadhog is feared even in the Outback due to his ruthlessness on and off the battlefield. Even if you tried using your Pokemon, it’s likely one or more would be killed or seriously injured to the point you will likely be unable to heal them completely with your supplies and current skill level.”

Ash was silent. “What about if you helped?”

Amelie tensed. “No.”

Thankfully, Ash didn’t push it. “At lease let me see if there’s anyone I can help by healing.”

Amelie frowned at him. She wasn’t sure she wanted him doing that. There was a visible glow whenever he used anything related to his powers. No way would no one notice.

On the other hand, Ash was stubborn and had a big heart. He had enough sense to let the Junkers go, but he was not going back down on this issue. Amelie groaned. “Fine, but at least try to be inconspicuous. I don’t want us to be exposed.”

Ash nodded and immediately ran off to the fallen shelves. Amelie dropped her basket (The food was covered in ceiling plaster.) and followed to make sure he didn’t end up causing an even bigger scene than the Junkers.


	19. Tired

Ash felt exhausted. He could barely keep his eyes open and was leaning against Ame to stay upright. It sort of felt like when he and Greninja were trying to figure out how to get the bond synchronization to work and he kept passing out.

Ash had tried conserving aura by focusing on really serious injuries and only partially healing them to the point where they could wait to get more treatment. It had worked, but there were still lots of injuries and structural damage and fear.

Ash’s control kept slipping. He saw everyone. Through their clothes, through their skin, through their muscle, through their organs, through their bones, through their nerves.

Saw Pikachu curled up and worried in the backpack and hating it.

Saw Ame hating herself next to him.

Saw what he could not heal in those surrounding him.

Saw the black on his arm that was both nearly invisible and stood out starkly from the rest of him.

And then Ash was in his sleeping bag blinking up at the sky. He didn’t remember going to sleep or dreaming. Just feeling exhausted. He sat up.

“Ash!”

And was nearly knocked back down by his Pokemon glomp tackling him. Ash blinked a couple of times. “Guys? What…Did I pass out?” They weren’t even in town anymore.

“Yes!”

“You slept all day and night!”

“What happened?!”

Ash had a pretty good idea. He’d suffered from aura exhaustion only once before, but it was impossible to forget. “I just used a little too much aura and needed time to recover. That’s all,” he reassured them. His stomach growled. “Might need to eat more than usual…”

“That would’ve been nice to know before.”

Ash finally noticed Ame standing next to a smoldering fire pit. Ash frowned when he noticed she was holding another bottle of liquor, but she wasn’t as drunk as last time so he decided not to bring it up. He also saw that there was a covered plate next to a fire, which caused his stomach to growl again. He blushed. “Yeah, I didn’t think I was going to give myself aura exhaustion,” he explained as he grabbed the plate and checked the food. Some sort of fish and vegetables. He quickly started eating it. “I know you think I’m reckless, but I go to extra lengths to avoid aura exhaustion because it can kill you. I’ve seen it kill someone before. It’s not pretty.” Ash paused to get some more food in his body. “It’s why my aura skills are kind of iffy. I had to teach myself, but I didn’t know what my limit was. It’s only since I ended up here that I figured out how much I can safely use.”

“And you thought it was a good idea to nearly kill yourself with it?!” questioned Torracat.

“And you thought it was safe to test that in an uncontrolled environment?” Ame questioned.

Torracat jerked his head towards Ame. “See?!”

“It is pretty rare for you two to agree on something,” agreed Lycanroc.

Pikachu sighed. “It’s just something Ash does. You get used to it. Not necessarily like it, but who would?”

“I don’t want to get used to it,” moaned Lycanroc.

“Okay! I’m sorry!” Ash chewed thoughtfully. “Maybe I can try building up my aura. I’m not sure how to do that, but it can’t hurt to try.”

“You better. I don’t want you to pass out for a day and a half again,” said Ame.

Ash winced. “That long? Yikes.” Given that was about as long as he’d been out last time, but he’d recovered a bit faster at least. “Yeah, I can’t afford to knock myself out like that on a regular basis. I still need to find someone who can help me get home…” He didn’t want to waste too much time. He technically didn’t have a reason to hurry, but everyone back home had to be worried…

Ash groaned. He didn’t think he’d ever had these many things to worry about at once. “Ame…”

“Hm?”

“Could you teach me to fight?”

That caught everyone off guard. “Why? Don’t you have your Pokemon fight for you?”

It wasn’t quite like that, but Ash decided not to change the subject. “I have reasons. I have gotten into fights before, although it’s pretty rare,” muttered Ash. It was a bit embarrassing when he looked back on things. “Anyway, physical training is supposed to help with aura development. I think just being physically active helps, but learning to fight properly would help more. Secondly, Pokemon aren’t native to this world. It’s probably safer not to have them fight if we can help it. Plus, uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think the humans here are less durable than back home. Pikachu shocks people on a regular basis, but no one is ever badly injured. It sounds like if he did something like that here, there would be some serious consequences."

Ame studied Pikachu for a moment before nodding. “That is true. I’m fairly certain the only reason I wasn’t more injured when he electrocuted me was because of whatever you were doing.”

Ash nodded. “Yeah, and…This last one is a bit hard to explain. Both of our worlds are dangerous, but they’re dangerous in different ways. Back home the main issue people have to deal with is wild Pokemon who might attack people because…they’re wild. Maybe occasionally a criminal who tries to use ‘em for something bad. Anyway, everything dangerous in my world can be traced back to Pokemon, so you deal with the problems using more Pokemon. That makes sense, right?”

“You don’t have guns?” asked Ame.

“Well, we do, but they’ve been very heavily regulated since the Great War. Even law enforcement officers can’t possess one unless they have reason to do so,” explained Ash. “Besides, guns aren’t necessarily effective. They’re okay for other humans and weaker Pokemon, but against certain Pokemon guns are just plain useless. For example.” Ash pointed at Lycanroc. “Rock types are bullet proof. You might chip off a little bit, but you won’t cause any serious injuries.”

Lycanroc nodded. “Yep.”

Ash pointed at Pikachu. “And someone speedy like Pikachu (and most electric types) would easily be able to dodge unless you’re really close, which wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Pikachu supported that with a smirk and sparks coming from his cheeks.

“And that’s not even getting into ghost types or Pokemon like Muk that don’t technically have internal organs, or legendaries,” continued Ash. “Anyway, point is that guns aren't that useful back home, so they haven't really...evolved. What makes this world dangerous is that you have some really high tech weapons, more lenient weapon laws, and more criminals. At least I think you do. I guess the best way to put it is that both worlds are equally dangerous, but the rules are different, and I think I need to learn the rules for this world for our own and others’ safety.” That seemed like the best way Ash had to describe it.

Ame studied him for a moment. “I’d rather not.”

Ash wilted. “Oh…Why?”

“I never wanted to learn how to fight.”

Ash winced at that reminder. Of course she wouldn’t want to use those skills anymore.

“And I’m an assassin," continued Ame. "All my techniques are meant to kill. You don’t strike me as someone who is willing to take a life.”

Ash winced. “No.” Unless it was in self-defense. He sighed. “Never mind then. I’ll try something else.” Maybe he could try some of Greninja’s moves. Although, that strategy included using cutting attacks like swords, water shuriken, and double team. Ash didn’t think he could do any of that. Maybe he could try copying the way Fighting types used moves…

Ash made an annoyed growl and ran his hands through his hair. He had no idea how to seriously learn how to fight. He’d never had to put any thought into it. Even though he ran into trouble all the time.

It occurred to him that this was a serious mistake.

Ash took a fortifying breath. He’d just have to focus on what he did know: Training Pokemon.


	20. It Keeps Happening

Ash had been having his Pokemon hit rocks that he was throwing into the air for over an hour.

Amelie was suspicious. True, he taught his Pokemon how to be effective fighters. It was his chosen career. However, she doubted that he usually had them trying to hit small objects flying through the air with their own long range attacks.

Actually, Pikachu was doing pretty good. He’d only missed one so far. The others were missing about as much as they were hitting, and Torracat and Lycanroc looked like they were getting frustrated.

Ash clapped his hands together. “Okay, that’s enough for now. Let’s take a break.” They quickly gathered back around the campfire and the latest meal Amelie was trying to cook without a kitchen.

“You are aware that fire won’t cause all bombs to go off, aren’t you?” pointed out Amelie.

Ash started before sheepishly scratching the back of his head. “That obvious, huh?”

“You’re an open book. You need to work on that,” lectured Amelie.

“I like being open,” argued Ash. “I know I’m sort of hiding a few things now, but it’s not because I want to…” he muttered. “Anyway, what was that about fire not making some bombs go off?”

“Some explosives are stable and can only be set off by an electrical charge,” explained Amelie. “You also need to account for any shrapnel that the bomb might contain.”

“Oh, that’s a good point,” said Ash. “I guess I should avoid setting any bombs off.”

“More importantly, why are you designing strategies to counter bombs?” pressed Amelie with narrowed eyes.

Ash was oddly unaffected. “So when we run into them again we’ll be able to at least defend ourselves.”

“You’re not going after them,” said Amelie.

“No, I’m not,” agreed Ash.

That threw Amelie off. “Then why are you acting like we’ll see them again?”

Pikachu snorted. Torracat huffed and tried to sneak away some of the food she was cooking. She slapped his paw away.

“Remember when I told you about Team Rocket and how we always run into them?” asked Ash.

“The criminals that follow you around and somehow never get arrested, yes, they’re very hard to forget even secondhand.”

“Well, they’re not the only criminals I had multiple encounters with,” admitted Ash. “I ended up encountering the criminal organizations in every region I went to. It wasn’t on purpose. We just…kept running into them. It was probably intentional on their part after a few times, and then we had to get involved because of their interest in us. And sometimes we just ran into lone criminals multiple times. It’s probably gonna happen with those two guys too, even if we try to avoid them.”

By the end of Ash’s explanation Amelie is no longer thinking of the Junkers. She’s thinking of Talon. Ash has no idea they exist, but he has already encountered them once through her. Even if she isn’t going to be a part of Talon ever again (She would die before she ever went back.), they were still going to be looking for her because she has information that they won’t want to get out. Or maybe they managed to get a look at Ash. She’s had handlers in the past. Maybe she had one that night.

Was Ash going to attract Talon to them? Was she going to attract Talon to them? Would the both of them somehow be drawn to Talon? Why had she never thought about this before? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Something touched her, and she reacted violently only to find that she was pinning nothing but leaves and dirt.

“Ame…” Amelie’s eye darted to Ash, who was holding his hands up. “It’s okay. No one here is going to hurt you.”

Amelie didn’t believe him. Ash wouldn’t hurt her (Too nice, too optimistic, too genuinely caring), but so many others would hurt her if given the chance. Would hurt him if given a chance. She knew them. They could be anywhere. They could be right behind her and she wouldn’t even notice…

She shot up! “Detection!”

Ash blinked. “Huh?”

“You said you can detect people. Is there anyone nearby?”

Ash paused for a moment as his eyes glowed blue. Lycanroc sniffed the air in what was probably an attempt to help. Ash’s eyes stopped glowing. “Just us and some animals. Do I need to keep an eye out for other people?”

Amelie nodded. Lycanroc and padded over to her and lay his head in her lap. She tried to distract herself by carding her hands through his fur.

“Are you gonna tell me who I need to look out for?” asked Ash.

Amelie shook her head. Ash looked like he wanted to ask but instead he took out a few more items from his backpack. Shortly afterwards Amelie found herself holding a cup of tea.

Apparently tea was one of the few things Ash could reliably prepare.

After it had cooled down quite a bit, she finally got thirsty enough to drink some. It was some sort of herbal tea. She had no idea what type, but she was under the impression that they were supposed to help with stress.

She drank most of the pot.


	21. Just Talking

“I’ve never heard of Kava root,” said Ame.

Ash shrugged. “I hadn’t before I started drinking tea. I like it because it tastes good with cinnamon. Chamomile’s also good for stress.”

“That one I’ve heard of,” said Ame. “Shouldn’t be hard to find more of it.”

Ash sighed. “I hope it tastes the same. The food here can be really confusing. You guys have soda, but it tastes way too sweet. The apples taste the same. You guys don’t have products that are made from berries (although that’s probably because those species don’t exist here). And the vegetarian options are just awful.”

“You’re not a vegetarian,” said Ame.

Ash blushed. “Well, no, but I’ve always preferred vegetarian options. I won’t say no to meat if it’s offered because I don’t like wasting food or life, and sometimes I’ll even decide to eat meat on my own.” He tapped his leg. “Now that I think about it, vegetarianism is a lot more common in my world. I guess it’s because Pokemon are just more…The best way I can put it is that they’re more human than the animals of this world.”

“I can see what you mean,” said Ame. “They’re obviously not human, but they’re intelligent like us. They can understand our language, they can communicate with us to a certain point, and they obviously have all the same emotions.” She frowned. “Wait. Are you saying you eat Pokemon?”

Ash frowned but nodded. “Yeah, I know that sounds bad, but we eat older Pokemon that have died of old age, wild Pokemon that have been killed by other wild Pokemon, or Pokemon that we had to kill out of self defense. Farming for meat…It’s not something we do. I’d never seen something like it before I got here.”

Ame’s nose wrinkled. “That sounds savage.”

“Not to us. It’s…well, it might not have always been that way, but like I said we don’t do meat farming. It would go against the Decrees of Arceus.”

“Who’s Arceus?”

“He’s the creator of the universe.”

“You mean God?”

“Well, he’s a god. We have several.”

“That sounds fascinating, but I do not feel ready to talk about religion.”

“Me neither.” Ash had seen a few things on religion and was a bit confused. Why did they have more than one religion? And why did they argue about so many aspects of the various religions?

“Back to the subject of food production,” said Ame. “You don’t farm meat, but you do have farms.”

Ash nodded. “Yeah, regular crops, berries (They grow in a few days so they’re in a different category.), eggs, dairy, riding, pretty much everything I’ve seen here except meat. I think it’s done a bit differently though. Or maybe I only ever see more old fashioned farms,” he mused.

“I think those foods are superior. Less pollution and chemicals.”

“Huh, maybe that’s why some of the food tastes different.”

“Probably. It sounds like the people in your world are more environmentally conscious.”

“Except for Grimy City.”

“That’s an actual place?”

“Yeah, full of smog and all other sorts of stuff. It’s mostly factories that have become automated. Not a lot of people. Lots of poison Pokemon. I think they feed on the pollution chemicals. I caught Muk there.”

“What’s a Muk?”

“Hm…A sentient pile of toxic sludge with eyeballs that smells like everything nasty you’ve ever heard of.”

“That sounds disgusting.”

“There’s a variety in Alola that’s multi-colored with poison crystals that doesn’t stink.”

“Slightly better.”

“The Muk I caught enjoys giving people hugs.”

“Oh God.”

“Professor Oak and I have developed an unusually high poison tolerance.”

“Do most people lack a sense of self-preservation where you’re from?”

“No! I want to live! Most people do! You just have to accept you’re probably gonna get injured if you deal with battle Pokemon,” explained Ash. “Besides, lots of people who specialize in poison Pokemon develop a high poison tolerance, like how people who specialize in fire Pokemon develop a high fire resistance.”

“You can gain a fire resistance?” Ame asked incredulously.

Ash nodded. “I have a decent fire resistance too from when Charizard misbehaved.” Pikachu snorted at the understatement.

“I’m starting to think we’re different species,” muttered Ame.

Ash shrugged. “I don’t know about that. The people here still seem pretty human to me, and I seem human to them. I think we’re all humans, but…I dunno how to put this. Humans back home can be weaker than ones here, but also tougher? I think you’d need some sort of scientist to understand what’s going on. Maybe we can ask the physicists when I manage to contact them.”

“You seem confident that they’ll talk to you,” commented Ame.

Ash shrugged. “I can be stubborn. It’s not always a good thing,” he admitted. “But I’m pretty sure we can convince them. There’s the Pokemon, my backpack, some of the berries from back home, my aura ability-”

“You shouldn’t tell anyone about your powers,” interrupted Ame.

Ash gave her a confused look, but he picked up some fear…for him? Well, he couldn’t blame her. “Okay, no talking about my powers.”


	22. What We Have In Common

While Amelie was working on making a decent stew it struck her that this was quickly becoming her new normal.

She and Ash traveled from settlement to settlement, foraging for food when possible, buying food with money from pawned goods, and just talked when things were quiet. The only deviation had been the run in with the Junkers, which hadn’t even been a direct confrontation.

It was…nice. It would only last as long as Ash had money or goods to exchange for money, but she could figure out something…probably.

Did she deserve this?

No, she really didn’t.

So, why on Earth was she still wandering around with them?

Ash noticed her watching them and gave her a big smile. Oh, right, some of them actually liked her and are the only ones who have been nice to her in years. She probably didn’t deserve that either, but it didn’t keep her from longing for someone who actually cared about her.

Really, they were probably the only ones in the whole world who would care what happened to her. She hadn’t exactly endeared herself to the people who knew she was still alive.

Honestly, she had no idea what she was supposed to do after she spoke to Gerard. She’d figured she’d just die, but something told her Ash was going to fight tooth and nail to prevent that.

“Ash, what is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?”

Ash started. “What brought that up?”

“I’m trying to figure something out.”

Ash frowned. “I guess…mind control.”

That caught her off guard. “Wait. Really?”

Ash nodded. “Yeah, a couple of times. The first time was because I did something stupid, and it was so subtle I didn’t even notice. I got exorcised pretty quickly and lectured and that was pretty much the end of that. The second time…” he trailed off. “It…The mind control didn’t work that time, but it hurt, and when I finally was able to rest I passed out for over a week because of the physical damage. I’ve gone through some events that were pretty bad, but the idea that you won’t be able to control yourself, that you’ll be a slave in your own body, especially without realizing it…That’s scary.”

Ash somehow seemed vulnerable for the first time since Amelie had met him, and she could empathize with the feeling. Maybe he’d empathized with her back when he’d first run into her. “How do you deal with it?” she asked as Lycanroc came over to nuzzle her.

Ash scratched Pikachu, who had climbed up onto his shoulder, behind the ears. “I have access to very good therapists, and I don’t mind taking some time off from traveling for a few months since that means I can spend some time at home with my mom.”

“Ah.” She didn’t have access to any therapists. “What sort of therapy did they give you?”

“Uh, it was mostly dealing with anxiety,” muttered Ash. “Would…would you like me to tell you a bit about that?”

Ame took a deep breath. “I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are suffering from PTSD or any other such disorder, don't be afraid to reach out for help. There's no shame in it.


	23. Shopping Trip

“…And Psyduck caught himself with one of Misty’s pokeballs by accident.”

“I’m still stuck on the fact multiple people thought Hop hop hop Town was a good name,” said Ame.

Ash shrugged. “The next town over was called Yo yo yo Town.”

“Now you have to be kidding me.”

“He’s not,” said Pikachu.

“Nope, that really was the name of the next town. Pretty normal besides that,” mused Ash. Not every town they went to had something crazy or competitive happen, especially early on. He turned on his aura vision. “Oh! There’s a town like…a fifth of a kilometer to the northwest. Bit small, but they probably have a small store where we can pick up a few things.”

Ame nodded and took her make-up out of her pockets to apply it to her skin. She was probably going to need more of it soon. She went through the stuff way too quickly. “How come you don’t wear longer shorts and sleeves?” asked Ash. “I mean, I know it’s pretty hot and humid so obviously long sleeves and pants aren’t a good idea, but a few inches might help with the make-up thing.”

“It would,” agreed Ame. “However, my body temperature is much lower than a normal person, which means I’m much more vulnerable to things like heat stroke. I have to wear as little clothing as possible to avoid that, especially since I can’t go to a hospital.”

“Oh…” Ash had noticed that Ame seemed colder than most people, but hadn’t stopped to think what that meant for her. “It’s like how Ice Pokemon are weak to Fire types. You’d never find one in an area like this.”

Ame nodded. “Believe me, I would love to cover up more. Fucking Moira.” She froze.

“I won’t ask who that is,” Ash reassured her.

Ame was relieved. “Good.”

Pikachu poked Ash’s cheek. “I bet Moira is some sort of scientist.”

That made sense, but Ash had already decided to drop the subject. He didn’t want to stress Ame by bringing up bad memories. “Is there anything you want to buy in particular? Besides the usual stuff?”

“Not in particular.”

“That’s probably for the best. Like I said it’s a pretty small town. Don’t think they’ll have a big store,” admitted Ash.

“Can you see how many people are living there?”

Ash blinked and activated his aura again. “Ugh, I think I’ll give myself a migraine if I try to count them one by one. I’d say…somewhere between 250 and 300.”

“You should try to practice that a bit.”

Ash wrinkled his nose. “I’ve tried, but do you know what it’s like to feel the emotions of every living thing within a 500 meter radius? It gets overwhelming real fast. I’d probably use it more often otherwise,” he muttered. It would have come in handy so many times in his life. How did Lucario do it?

Ame sighed. “Of course it couldn’t be that simple.”

After a few more minutes, Ame finished applying her make-up and Pikachu hid in Ash’s backpack again while they headed into town. True to what Ash had picked up, it was a rather small town. The people who saw them were a bit surprised but the worst they did was watch curiously for a few moments.

The store was actually even smaller than Ash was expecting. He poked at the one type of pasta in stock as he tried to remember if they needed more. Ame was glowering at the lack of seasonings.

Ash walked over to the refrigerated section. It was mostly dairy and eggs and meat. He perked up when he saw some ice type treats. There was plain ice, frozen fruit pops, ice cream…not actually a lot of variety, but it would help. He went to grab a box of fruit pops before realizing that it would start melting. It would stay frozen once in his backpack, but he didn’t have any way to refreeze it.

He’d just have to wait until the last minute. He put the pops back and went back over to Ame who was now closely examining two oranges as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. Kalosian/French people sure take food seriously!

“What were you looking at?” asked Ame.

“Frozen stuff. Anything you’d like?”

“Not really.”

Ash frowned. “But wouldn’t that help with overheating?”

“Something that cold could make my condition worse,” said Ame.

Ash blinked. “But…It would cool you down.”

“I can’t remember the particular hows or whys, but drinking something ice cold when your body temperature is dangerously high can make your body crash. It’s better to drink lukewarm water until your core temperature is back to normal. It’s why I drink so much water when we’re active,” explained Ame.

Ash had wondered about that. “Okay, no ice then. Any drinks?”

“They don’t have any liquor.”

“Not what I meant,” muttered Ash. He picked up an orange and experimentally focused on it. He saw through it…and pretty much everything within a decent distance. “All three of these look good.”

Ame raised an eyebrow before putting them all in the basket. “That’s one way to check.”

Ash shrugged. “It’s one of the better ways to practice…Maybe we could flavor a couple of bottles of water with fruit juice.”

Ame shrugged. “It would be a change.” She stared at a bunch of bananas for a moment before sighing. “Do you ever look at your life and wonder how it became so fucked up?”

Ash nodded. “Sometimes. It’s…easy and difficult. I know the major stuff, but there were a lot of minor things too…”

“This is not where I saw myself as a child.”

“Me neither,” muttered Ash. He wouldn’t have predicted anything like this even a few months ago. “I guess we were just unlucky.”

Ame ran a hand down her face before jerking it away. Looks like she’d accidentally smeared her make-up. “Fuck!”

“I, uh, I can check us out,” offered Ash.

“Yes, please.” Ame handed over the shopping basket. “I’m going to have to try and use the window to fix this…”

They did have a make-up mirror, but it was in his bag. Maybe they should get another, regular bag for Ame so she had access to at least a few things when they ventured into civilization.

Ash took one last look at the frozen goods before deciding to just head to the register.


	24. Cleaning Up

Amelie couldn’t get the make-up off fast enough. It took so much to cover her abnormal skin color, and she would have never guessed how awful that could feel…

She thought a bit about getting a darker foundation color. The main reason she hadn’t done so initially was because she’d gravitated towards her original skin color. Maybe she could get a darker tone and say she had a tan.

Amelie stayed in the river for another few minutes to cool off a bit before getting out and ringing out her clothes and hair as much as she could.

Ash looked over from where he was examining some river rocks. “Feeling better?”

Amelie huffed. “There has got to be an easier way to do this.”

Ash shrugged. “Probably. Might not work as well though.” He tossed a rock to Lycanroc, who swallowed it.

Amelie blinked. “Is it all right for Lycanroc to eat rocks?”

“Yeah, as long as they’re small,” said Ash. “And they can only eat certain types. I think he likes it more than the additives.”

Lycanroc nodded and barked happily.

“Huh, usually, that sort of thing would call for a trip to the veterinarian and a pricey bill,” commented Amelie. She’d never had to do that herself, but she’d had a friend in middle school who’d had a dog who would eat anything. Anything. There had been so many horror stories, and she had been told to never let him lick her… “Uh, does Lycanroc ever eat anything questionable?”

Ash thought a moment. “I once caught him eating a dead Rattata, but it hadn’t been dead for very long, and he’d been a wild Pokemon like a week before so I figured it was just habit.”

That didn’t sound too bad. Animals eating animals was just a part of nature. When you thought about it having someone give you food every day for no reason was unnatural. But it wasn’t for nothing. Lycanroc fought for Ash and protected him, loved him… “I’m thinking too much. Let’s start walking.”

Ash stood and brushed off his pants. “Okay.”

“Maybe tell another story.”

“Ooh, the Diglet and Dugtrio!”

Amelie listened as Ash started to describe what those two particular Pokemon were. It was a relieving change of pace.


End file.
